'We should stop eating Nutella' because it is destroying the environment

Think of the oil palms!Y W / Flickr, CC
French ecology minister Segolene Royal wants people to stop eating Nutella because it's destroying the planet.

Royal said in an interview with the French television network Canal+ that people should stop eating the popular hazelnut spread because harvesting one of its key ingredients, palm oil, leads to deforestation.

Nutella is a huge deal in France — the country consumes 26% of all Nutella produced globally by Italian maker Ferrero.

Royal said in the Canal+ interview: "We have to replant a lot of trees because there is massive deforestation that also leads to global warming. We should stop eating Nutella, for example, because it's made with palm oil. Oil palms have replaced trees, and therefore caused considerable damage to the environment."

In 2011, France tried to push through a 300% tax on palm oil because of its deforestation effect and its role in contributing to obesity.

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In 2012, however, the draft law — dubbed the "Nutella Law" — was quashed after the French senate rejected the amendment by 186 votes to 155.

The move would have been a huge deal for Malaysia, Nutella's largest supplier of palm oil and the world's second-largest producer of palm oil behind Indonesia. Half a million people work for the palm-oil industry in Malaysia, and the sector accounts for 5% to 6% of Malaysia's gross domestic product.